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Campaigners call for urgent change to make 'upskirting' a criminal offence

A woman who was a victim of upskirting said a change in the law is needed to stop sexual harassment being treated as a "public nuisance".

The woman, in her mid-20s and from the Greater London area, became a victim when she saw two men take and then share indecent images of her on their phones.

She said she obtained evidence of the suspects' behaviour and presented it to the police, but officers were unable to take the matter further.

The victim said a change in the law would have seen her case result in a successful conviction.

Right now there's not even recognition that it (upskirting) is a crime with a victim at all - it categorises sexual harassment as a public nuisance because the only way you can really prosecute is outraging public decency in the same way you would be for urinating in public.
The law hasn't caught up with digital technology at all, digital technology changes so quickly and unless we have something to start with that we can start prosecuting under, we are going to be so far behind.
At the moment upskirting is in limbo - it's a difficult issue to tackle in terms of legislation. We have this culture - unless you were physically touched, you were not assaulted.

– Victim

Recalling her own experience, the victim said she felt totally out of control.

So often women don't know it's happened to them. It's not always about sexual gratification - in some cases it's harassment, and in my case it was revenge because they were trying to hit on me and I said no.
For me, I was in a head space of having fun then it suddenly switched. I was involved in something horrible and it was extremely embarrassing.

– Victim

She said she was confident of upskirting becoming enshrined in law in its own right - in a similar way to revenge porn.